The publisher Wiley Blackwell has taken the interest in popular culture as a very serious and worthwhile endeavor judging by the numerous books published in their "Culture Series" in the past few years. From South Park to The Daily Show, they have tried to offer the average viewers some new insights into favourite TV characters. The TV medical drama House, MD is not an exception then, but a very good choice, a choice dictated "by popular demand," as it seems. Undoubtedly, for the House, MD aficionados another form of intellectual pleasure, besides the viewing one, is the publication of two recent books: House and Philosophy: Everybody Lies (2009) and House and Psychology: Humanity Is Overrated (2011).

In House and Psychology: Humanity Is Overrated, the editors Ted Cascio and Leonard L. Martin have collected 17 essays on the much-beloved TV doctor, Gregory House. At least in this particular case, the competition can hardly be found in the lovely character of Dr Quinn from Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993-1998) or the quirky yet well-tempered doctors from Grey's Anatomy (2005- ), to name just two of the popular medical dramas through the years. Dr House is quite "unorthodox" in his methods there is, in fact, a well-documented method in his "madness" and he manages to draw attention to himself both for the right and the wrong reasons. So, as the editors advise us from the very first page, "Take caution: you're about to enter the extraordinary mental universe of the brilliant, bombastic, bile-belching doctor of medicine referred to simply as House. How's that for a hook? No good? Okay, scratch that." (1)

But we can't simply "scratch that": the chance to have an insider's look at a very popular hero is always a temptation for the viewer, and, even better, that same viewer now turns into a reader. Following the lead of the rest of the books in the "Culture Series," this collectionprovides accessible readings on the TV series and their eponymous protagonist through the lens of psychology in all its varieties (social, cognitive, group, clinical, etc.) with a very important twist: all the highbrow theory and interpretations are imbued with a good dose of humor as evident even in style of the contributors' bios. Such a humorous attitude, without diminishing the appropriate scholastic weight though, keeps the reader of any academic background interested not simply in the endless escapades of Gregory House, but in the larger social and psychological issues they entail. In this way the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro turns out to be a handy metaphor for the world around us; the hospital's heroes and antiheroes the humanity, "overrated" as House says, still the humanity we all share.

The book is divided in four parts aptly (and anecdotally) called "The Good: Unlimited Vicodin," "The Bad: Psychological Malpractice," "The Ugly: 'Is That My EKG?'" and "The Awe-Inspiring: House Rocks!" What each parts makes clear is that Gregory House is a quirky "powerhouse" worth considering on several levels. For once, being brilliant and arrogant at the same time, he defies our commonsense expectation for professional bedside manners and also for human interaction in general. His notorious quip, "What do you want, a doctor who holds your hand while you die, or a doctor who ignores you while you get better?" (95) is more than "bile-belching" for it defines House as the ultimate diagnostician whose actions more often than not defy the "high-validity environment" of the hospital yet get the right diagnosis sooner or later. So, what with the free circulation of Vicodin then? To better spice up that bile and sharpen the eye of the doctor, one might say, even at the expense of the well-being of the man and we all know what House in pain is like!

"The bad, the ugly, and the awe-inspiring" House clearly needs his entourage of doctors and sidekicks just as much as he needs his criminally stashed Vicodin, as this collection of essays illustrates. For his inability, or his difficulties, to communicate, and his unorthodox methods of approaching people are encounters and aspects of social functioning that we all relate to, to a certain degree. As the contributors recurrently point out, the brilliance and the bile, the "Aha! moments" (50) and even the despair, all these need a social context, an illusion, if not a real community of people for social validation. Well, if House cannot love people, he can at least try to cure them and prove Nature/God/Death wrong on various occasions. It will be up to the much-abused, frequently-provoked, friend and colleague Wilson to conclude, "He saves lives. People that no one else can save. And, no matter how much of an ass he is, statistically, House is a positive force in the universe." (18)

Dr Rossitsa Terzieva-Artemis is an Assistant Professor in the Languages Department at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus, specializing in modern British and American literatures, psychoanalysis, and continental philosophy.

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